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Brixton news, rumours and general chat - April 2013

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On another subject...

What a wonderful Brixton day - the Bake-Off market thingie was inspiring, only cos I chatted with lovely David from the Brixton Prison training chefs scheme - under the auspices of revolting Ramsay and the telly - but a genuinely lovely fella who's actually got a chef's job 4 weeks after leaving nick. Then the sweet wee community event in Loughborough Junction - free cycle repairs [hooray!], urban/guerrilla gardening n eating, I arranged for the spare [free] food to go to Brixton Soup Kitchen. Happy days! Sunshine - plus hail! Sorry if anybody's already posted the answer but... does anybody know who won the bake-off prizes? So hope it's the prison lads...
 
shygirl said:
I think the prize went to the elderly Jamaican woman (whose name escapes me), for her beetroot cake.
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not from the lovely family who sell vegan cakes that are dee fucking licious and are happy to give away loads of free samples?

i want cake now.
 
Shower of cunts

IMAG0968-1.jpg
 
I thought that was going to be a picture of the scouts that have been marching. :D

Back again. They've been here the last few weekends. Maybe we need to send the lads round with baseball bats.
 
I wonder why the scientologists are preying on Brixton. We do have lots of vulnerable people here - one of the highest rates of mental illness in the country in Coldharbour ward IIRC.
 
They don't "prey" on Brixton, they tend to get thrown out of various places for not having the right street trading paperwork (which as the aim of the 'stress test' is to sell you the Dianetics book means they are selling and thus need it) so they stick somewhere till they get moved on or threatened by the authorities, then find somewhere else to exploit for a few weeks, rinse repeat.

That's why it may seem they're around here for a few weeks.

It's also partly why they seem to turn up on sundays - less chance of street trading enforcement turning up to get them to move on, and the plod don't seem particularly interested.

Unfortunately they keep trying to pull the "religious discrimination" card to justify why they should be allowed to stay, but they still aren't classed as a legitimate religious organisation in the UK.

If you ever feel led to try and take their 'stress test', wiggling your toes whilst holding the cans makes the needle go funny and tends to confuse the new recruits which are often all they can get to help them, often with one or two experienced people based out of Tottenham Court Road or sometimes even dragged up from their base at East Grinstead as their numbers are very low these days.
 
Interesting. Does Lambeth have a policy of not giving them permission? Maybe a PCSO could be persuaded to ask them for their paperwork?
 
That's the thing, if they ask for the paperwork they are usually granted it - regardless of your own feelings on Scientology, there is no reason to deny them the street trading permit if they apply and pay the fee.

The problem is that they feel they are "above the law" in such matters and that they should be allowed to "share their faith" in the same way as other religious groups do, and won't spend the money on the permit.

The difference is, of course, that any other religious group may give you a small leaflet to take away - but they give it, rather than sell it to you. You also have the confusion of course that they aren't classed as a religion under UK law so 'prostelysing' does not count in the same way.

The difficulty is that the few senior members that would be in the party are well trained at explaining away their lack of permit to the extent that most coppers will either give up as they are persuaded that the group are legitimately allowed to street trade without a permit, or just can't be arsed to deal with the situation. Of course, that then makes you a 'religious bigot' and just as likely for them to complain that you are denying them their rights to share their religion.

"Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be start his own religion" - L. Ron Hubbard.
 
Rushy said:
Looks good. I have never noticed the office opposite the Town Hall or the ad on the phone box and I pass both a couple of times a day. I have seen an ad elsewhere but thought they were just another payday company. Did not clock that they were lending at lower rates. I guess we all tend to sneer at kangaroo / Wonga style marketing but people have heard of those payday companies and hardly anyone knows about the credit unions, or what their stated aims are, or even what those stated aims mean. If CUOKs marketing were as good they'd put the Payday shops out of work locally.
Click to expand...

Heard about the credit union via the Move Your Money campaign last summer. Also the Brixton Pound crowd did a photo op outside the Acre Lane branch one time.

A couple of months ago, finally spurred on by the massive amount I was being charged by Lloyds TSB for their wanky Platinum current account and my own lax money management, I set up a current account with the credit union, cancelled ALL my Lloyds standing orders and direct debits (except the one to Local Greens) and sat back and waited for the threatening letters and automated phonecalls to roll in. Then using online banking to transfer money from the Lloyds to the LMCU account, I gradually re-set up the important payments on the LMCU account. An incidental benefit was that I stopped paying quite a few subscriptions for things I didn't really need any more.

I was a bit trepidatious about this at first and kept a record in a spreadsheet of what I was doing (very unlike me!) because the LMCU account does not allow you to go overdrawn and the literature says you will be charged 15 quid for each transaction that bounces. However, I've since been told by the LMCU people that they don't charge you the first time and they'll call you up to warn you if it happens. This fits in with my experience of how they've been: very responsive and you speak to a real, local person when you call them up, which is very much worth the 2 quid a month cost of the current account imo. The online banking is basic but works and the debit card is just like a traditional one.

I recently heard that the LMCU current account is actually in some way a Co-operative Bank account, which isn't pointed out on their website. Don't know the in's and out's of that but either way, supporting the activities of the credit union has to be better than helping to finance the nefarious activities of one of the mainstream banks.
 
kikiscrumbles said:
On another subject...

What a wonderful Brixton day - the Bake-Off market thingie was inspiring, only cos I chatted with lovely David from the Brixton Prison training chefs scheme - under the auspices of revolting Ramsay and the telly - but a genuinely lovely fella who's actually got a chef's job 4 weeks after leaving nick. Then the sweet wee community event in Loughborough Junction - free cycle repairs [hooray!], urban/guerrilla gardening n eating, I arranged for the spare [free] food to go to Brixton Soup Kitchen. Happy days! Sunshine - plus hail! Sorry if anybody's already posted the answer but... does anybody know who won the bake-off prizes? So hope it's the prison lads...
Click to expand...

shygirl said:
I think the prize went to the elderly Jamaican woman (whose name escapes me), for her beetroot cake.
Click to expand...

pissflaps said:
not from the lovely family who sell vegan cakes that are dee fucking licious and are happy to give away loads of free samples?

i want cake now.
Click to expand...

gutted to have missed this. My friends who run The Vegan Tart (I never get to name drop so I damn well will now.. :D) won the main and a 2nd prize and The No Frills Band were playing, loads of friends down to watch it from all different walks of life... we were absolutely freezing our socks off in a field in Surrey camping.. but anyway, here is the prize list:

The winners are:
Overhall winner: The Vegan Tart
Cakes - Portia's Kitchen
Cupcake - Lambeth College
Biscuits & bites - The Carob Pod
Savouries - The Vegan Tart
Bread - The Pandam Bakery
Vegan - Khansa
 
gaijingirl said:
gutted to have missed this. My friends who run The Vegan Tart (I never get to name drop so I damn well will now.. :D) won the main and a 2nd prize and The No Frills Band were playing, loads of friends down to watch it from all different walks of life... we were absolutely freezing our socks off in a field in Surrey camping.. but anyway, here is the prize list:

The winners are:
Overhall winner: The Vegan Tart
Cakes - Portia's Kitchen
Cupcake - Lambeth College
Biscuits & bites - The Carob Pod
Savouries - The Vegan Tart
Bread - The Pandam Bakery
Vegan - Khansa
Click to expand...

Have rarely seen Station Rd that busy
 
Football stuck in the top of a tree at Myatts Fields Park. Photo does not do it justice but that is a BIG tree. I was just surprised as to how it got up there and how it is staying up there.

IMAG0983.jpg
 
Take a look at this charmer's comment on my piece about Babalou and Mass closing.
That space should be used for better events than sad fat londoners in leather spreading HIV. Instead it would make an amazing venue for real music events. Brixton could do with a community music space that hosts many visitors. The torture garden makes Brixton a sex and drugs place rather than a music and food and culture place. If they loose it. What a pity.
Click to expand...
 
Ah, I used to work at Criterion in Sydenham, which until it closed still had the original Formica 1950s tables.

It seems a strange site to open an Ice Cream parlour in - next to the UK Church of God (I have no idea what their opinion on ice cream is, but suspect they think that brain freeze is the Work of the Devil).
 
I hear the branch in Norbury is very popular with Muslim teenagers as it gives them somewhere to hang out and meet that doesn't involve booze... (unlike me when I was 15...)
 
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